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Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) is expanding its operations in overseas markets in the countries like China and South Korea. Also, in talks with Singapore, South Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia.

It has tied up with few automobile companies and local auto component manufactures for homologation, research and development, safety standards and testing facilities in the automobile sector.

It provides technical expertise in R & D, testing, certification, homologation and framing of vehicle regulations. ARAI is investing Rs 22 crore every year for research and development.

Speaking to Business Standard on this, Shrikant Marathe, director, ARAI said, "The Chinese and Korean companies are very much concern about standards for their products, As we know, many Chinese and South Korean automobile companies are based in India, they need information in the areas like testing, services, certification and safety. Auto component suppliers in China and South Korea have lot of queries regarding industrial homologation and testing. In ARAI, we harmonize Indian automotive standards to global standards." However, Marathe did not reveal the names of these companies

Marathe added, "ARAI is also in talks with the companies in South Africa, Singapore Government, Indonesia and Malaysia for the technical support for their automobile manufacturers. Our team has already visited China and South Korea for the technical collaboration and educated their companies on safety, industrial homologation and testing. The entire process of shaping up collaborations with these countries will take another two years."

ARAI has also developed few testing facilities in its Pune campus.

It includes tyre testing laboratory, the only facility after Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), seat testing with the help of Kuka Robot for developing seats especially for German auto manufacturers and highly accelerated life testing (HALT) for emission of commercial vehicles for air bag testing and advanced crash testing facility.

It has invested around Rs 22 crore for these research and development facilities. ARAI is expecting to receive Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) accreditation for it.

According to Marathe, there is a huge market potential for research and development for testin in automobile sector. The market size of this segment is around Rs 15000 crore. India can easily tap this opportunity for which speedy development is necessary.